James Marsters had plenty of geek credential thanks to his roles as Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Captain John Hart in Torchwood, but he could have appeared in the Star Trek franchise too – had he not completely bungled his audition.

In an interview with SyFy, Marsters said that he was in the running to play the role of Shinzon, the evil clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, which meant that he had to audition opposite Sir Patrick Stewart.

It didn't go well.

"I was horrible," he said. "I was God-awful in the audition, because I was fanboying out so hard to be in the same room with Jean-Luc Picard.

"I could see his face and he was pulling for me, he's trying to get me to act with him. And I could see in his eyes, 'Wow, this is not working at all, this kid is terrible'."